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Has anyone here ever been to Japan? Heck, I'm seriously thinking about doing a student-exchange thing or maybe like a trip there. How awesome would that be? Anyone know any good sites? Is it like a big necesity to speak Japanese? (Do they even have American tours?)

ooo i plan on going as an exchange student when i finish skool!! ^__^ i really like japan and would love to live there for a while there is this thing called the JETT programme or summin and they deal with things like that im not to sure of their site but ive heard they are good ^_~

You should take the effort to pick up a minimum of Japanese if you want to stay for more than a few weeks.

Doing student exchange is good, be sure to pick up a fair bit of Japanese even if your classes are in English. They may not be if you're attending anything less than College.

If you're going as a tourist, zero Japanese is necessary cause they're used to tourists babbling in a foreign language and will just point you where you need to go (or give you a menu and you point at what you want!)

I'm leaving to Osaka as exchange student next autumn.. still lot's of time left. The university I'm attendin in is international one, so teaching language is english. That's good, cause I wouldn't understand a thing spoken in full-japanese university.. I've been studied Japanese language about 2 years now, but it seems I'm still total beginner

Here's link to universitys homepage if someones interested: http://www.kansaigaidai.ac.jp/ -- Oh yeah, if someone has been in there I would love to hear opinions about that place. Of course also all other stuff related to being exchange student in Japan is very much welcome!

-If you know someone in Japan, you should live with him, or to make an exchange with a japanese student in your family for example, because the price of the hotels is incredibly expensive .

-don't eat in the restaurant for the foreigner it's extremely expensive too : forget the meat, bread and all the western food in general, on the other hand the fish, and all the regional food (noodles and sushis in the sushis's bars ^^), are really not expensive.

-Transport is also extremely expensive (more or less 150-155 $ for Tokyo-Kyoto-Tokyo for example).

-if you don't talk japanese very well take a map! (and if you speak japanese take a map too ), the name of the streets aren't indicated, if you didn't know the places, you will remain 3 days in the street ^^

-Don't spend all your money in the first manga store by seeing that they can cost less than one dollars

-Don't look the beautiful japanese girl too closely in the street people will think that you're a stalker

Ok dreamers. First things first, visit japan before you make up these grand plans.

Who knows, you might think it seriously sucks when you get there, yes it is possible. Your view of japan is a romanticised one (yah i spellt that wrong ).

Yes i admit i would like to do the same thing but first things first, check the place out. After i get my armymoney im thinking of going there, it probably wont happen though since i dont want to go there by myself and it costs hellishly much.

So, before you make up plans, visit there for like 2 weeks or so.

Otherwise you might end up being in japan for a year while thinking it suxxors big time :P

-If you know someone in Japan, you should live with him, or to make an exchange with a japanese student in your family for example, because the price of the hotels is incredibly expensive .

-don't eat in the restaurant for the foreigner it's extremely expensive too : forget the meat, bread and all the western food in general, on the other hand the fish, and all the regional food (noodles and sushis in the sushis's bars ^^), are really not expensive.

-Transport is also extremely expensive (more or less 150-155 $ for Tokyo-Kyoto-Tokyo for example).

-if you don't talk japanese very well take a map! (and if you speak japanese take a map too ), the name of the streets aren't indicated, if you didn't know the places, you will remain 3 days in the street ^^

-Don't spend all your money in the first manga store by seeing that they can cost less than one dollars

-Don't look the beautiful japanese girl too closely in the street people will think that you're a stalker

especially the last one, listen to the last one the most.
i dont know if its true in japan as well, but in asia men will beat u up if u make one wrong move on a grl. They hate molesters u see. they sometimes make bad judgements. haha

especially the last one, listen to the last one the most.
i dont know if its true in japan as well, but in asia men will beat u up if u make one wrong move on a grl. They hate molesters u see. they sometimes make bad judgements. haha

lol no, The japanese aren't like that, more 'calm' (it's not exactly that thought), but when you will see a cop appear in front of you suddenly, you will not laugh, especially when he speaks so much quickly that you don't understand a thing about what he says

If there is a study aboard program, go do it. Cuz the one that they offer at my college, it costs almost the same as summer session here. So you pay the same price as you would if you went to school for the summer here, but instead your chasing japanese girls instead!

And ive been to japan many times, you wont be dissapointed if you go. But of course you will get home sick for the first couple of weeks

lol no, The japanese aren't like that, more 'calm' (it's not exactly that thought), but when you will see a cop appear in front of you suddenly, you will not laugh, especially when he speaks so much quickly that you don't understand a thing about what he says

hahaha. I heard even the police is very tolerant unless is something perverted.

well im not 100% sure, since ive only seen this on tv, but in korea they do that. If some grl crys for help, the nearby men walks up and beats the guy up. since molester and criminals were rare in asia. (until the 1990's then it started to rise) I heard my dad did that once, or was it my mom.... who cares, the molester got wat he deserved.

Ok, so three weeks accomodation and living expenses in Tokyo was equal to my entire 3 month budget in India....^^;

Try not to arrive on a late night flight into Narita airport (Tokyo), you might just find yourself stuck at the airport with an expensive overnight stay at a hotel!

If you do not already have a place to stay then try a gaijin house (Foreigner's house) usually found in the outer suburbs of Tokyo, beware though some of these places are run by extremely dubious types (ones with "Big" in the name ie Big apple etc), they also tend to attract a strange old crowd and are not recomended for the inexperienced traveller. Saying this though, they can be a great starting place to meet people both Japanese and foreign (usually also new to the country). About 3 years ago rent for a place in a dormitory was about 10-12,000 yen a week, with sometimes this being negotiable.
Some positive points to this are that if you're lucky enough, the district you are in will have a 100 yen shop, these places are essential to keeping yourself fed well without bankrupting yourself.

Money.

Think your Visa credit card is going to get you out of some sticky situations...? Think again, bizarrely enough in Japan most cash machines will only let you withdraw money with a "Magic" Japanese only visa card. Be aware any visa delta card you have too may be useless, although purchases hould be fine for both standard and Visa delta cards. Some good cards that are accepted at most cash points are mastercard and any cashcard with a "cirrus" symbol on.
Dont also get caught out by those incredibally useful ATM's that close overnight (kinda defeating the object) but don't worry of you couldn't get your cash out the Beer vending machines will have closed by now too (usually 11pm).
Japanese coins and notes are pretty easy to get the hang of, use the rough ready reckoner that 100 yen = 1 US $ if you're having trouble working out the value of an item.
It is possible as a gaijin to open a bank account in Japan but you'd have to be either masochistic, or employed to want to get through the red tape. watch with amusement as the staff try to convert your name into katakana...
Actually having a bank account is pretty essential if you are going to be working and by this I mean being properly employed, ie not basing yourself in Roppongi (A nightclub filled area where "cash in hand" work is possible).
Its can also be useful if you are going to be transferring monies to/from abroad a lot as you can usually set up a simple sort of account to transfer funds (this saves you from filling in the paperwork again and again).
Don't expect any sort of interest on any savings you have in Japan though as the interest rate has been close to 0% for many years now......

Travel.Pt 1

Like mentioned previously travelling within Japan is expensive here are a few tips;

JR -line railways.

Ah the joy of the JR lines,

Don't even try to travel peak time if you are claustrophobic, or have issues about getting friendly with complete strangers (ie having hundreds of Japanese business men crushed against you). People are actually employed to physically crush as many passengers on board some trains at the busiest stations.

Off peak though they are usually pleasant experiences, just ignore the staring.....remember it your fault for being such a Hen-na gaijin!

Each line of the JR is colour coded making it fairly easy to use. Feet marks on the platform aren't just for show, the train doors will actually stop at these points. When arranging meet someone at a station exit make sure you specify which exit! Some JR stations can have 8 or more exits...... !

Useful Japanese phrase:

Sumimasen.....Kono densha wa ......... ni ikimasu ka? - Excuse me.....is this train going to ...........? A classic for if your not sure if you've got on the right train.

Useless trivia:
Ever notice how upon getting on a train most Japanese people fall straight to sleep? Waking up seconds before they are due to get off, this one had me puzzled until I realised how,
A) punctual each journey is, each trip will vary usually only by a number of seconds from the last.
B) How some children have small ear pieces in (these can be set for a specific time period ( ie the length of the journey) and then emit small beeping noises at the end of the time period to wake up a sleeping person. This must take a long time to be subconciously absorbed but is the closest I have come to an answer to the above....

The Underground/Subway

Ok I have to admit to not even knowing about the Tokyo underground system until about a month into living there! This is not to say it is a bad system, rather that the JR lines and bus system's are remarkably prompt and cover an wide range of places efficiently and conveniently...
remember though the subway closes very close to midnight, its all to keep the below people in their jobs.....

Useful Japanese phrase:

chikatetsu wa doko ni arimasu ka? - Where is the the subway?

Taxi's

Just getting into a Taxi will cost you 600 odd yen (about 6 US $) and thats before you actually go anywhere make sure yuo know how to say the name of the place your going to and your drivers knows it too! Most taxi drivers I used understood (or claimed to understand) no English.

Ever notice how upon getting on a train most Japanese people fall straight to sleep? Waking up seconds before they are due to get off, this one had me puzzled until I realised how,
A) punctual each journey is, each trip will vary usually only by a number of seconds from the last.
B) How some children have small ear pieces in (these can be set for a specific time period ( ie the length of the journey) and then emit small beeping noises at the end of the time period to wake up a sleeping person. This must take a long time to be subconciously absorbed but is the closest I have come to an answer to the above....

Tsurumaru - When i was in grade school, i also did something similair on my bus. I think once u get use to time frame you can work it out. Usually i was half consious so i could feel the street bumps and knew when my stop was coming up. Weird huh?

btw Hunter u mentioned mangas' being only about a dollar. how much is it in yen?(dont know the conversion ratio) and is it still that cheap over there? i mean 10 japanese manga is about one manga here in the US?? I remember the japanese manga being cheap in little tokyo, but it wasnt a dollar...

Dont worry about looking like an idoit, you're a dam tourist, you're suppose to look out of place.

You can either change your money here in america, or at the airport. If you go to a bank in japan, I think i had to show them some ID, and it took them like 10-20 mins just for them to make sure everything was in order and give me my yen back.

There was a money changing machine at the malls, dont know if it was at every mall, but it gave a lower rate like 115 or 118 yen to the dollar. But it just a diffrence in pennies and you don have to go to the bank and possibly pay a fee. And dont change your money at the airport either, cuz i think they charge a rather large fee.

And make sure you got like 50-80 bucks worth of yen for each person in your group, cuz when you leave japan, the airport charges your a fee for useing thier airport hub on your way out of the country (you dont have to pay a fee when you get off the plane into japan). I remember that we had too pay like a 15% exchange fee just too change our dollars into yen, so we could leave the dam airport. Ah, i forgot which hub this was, i think it was osaka.